Where are the Loyalties
by PaintedShadow
Summary: Once one domino falls it starts a chain reaction... Takes place after "We, the Juries".
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I felt compelled to write something when I saw the promo for "We, the Juries". Then the episode just fueled the fire and this is what came of it. It will be a multi-chapter story and includes Alicia, Cary, Will, and Kalinda. I have yet to decide if it will become a romance, but there is a chance it could. You all will have to give me input. Happy Reading!**

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_Cary_

I didn't expect her to show up at the bar. Yes, I know that she wanted to talk, apologize. But I couldn't deal with her betrayal. I'm starting to understand Will's warpath against our firm, well more so against Alicia than the firm. Kalinda's betrayal wasn't of the same magnitude as Alicia's betrayal of Will, but it still hurt. In the courthouse, I told her that I forgive her. But I'm not sure if I actually do. When she showed up at my apartment, after their fiasco in front of the head of the Paisley group, she wanted drinks. Only drinks. I have missed her company. I have missed her. I ended up going. I still can't determine if that was a good or bad idea. But I went.

Now I'm sitting in a different bar. After our client took the plea of four years, with a chance out probation in two, I ended up here. I knew that something was wrong with Alicia, more than Will the Crusader. Something wrong, life altering wrong.

"Hey." She said, collapsing onto the bar chair next to me.

I give her a slight smile, "for you." I say and slide the tequila shot over to her. I watch as she smiles and downs it, then sucks on the lime wedge.

"Very much needed. Thank you Cary."

"You looked like you needed it." I grin wickedly, as she sits there staring at me with her mouth agape, trying hard not to laugh. Signaling the bartender for two more shots, I watch as she recovers. "It's been a long day, hasn't it?"

She nodded emphatically. "That's why this was needed." She smile slightly, but it never reached her eyes. Rarely these days did it reach to light up her eyes. I remember the first year at Lockhart Gardner, and even though we were competing there were times where I saw the smile that would light up her entire face, eyes included. Usually happened when around Will, but at a few other instances too.

I reach for the tequila shot. "We're making it. We really are." I raise my shot up in the air and then knock it back. It burns as it goes down. I cough at the sensation. "I don't understand how you and Kalinda can stand those shots."

She flinched as I said her former friend's name, she wasn't expecting it. But then stayed silent.

"When did we become dysfunctional Cary? We said we would work as a team. We have on some things, but on others… you have gone behind my back, invited Peter before I could speak to him and to top it sent a mass email announcing the Governor's attendance."

I rest against the back of the chair for support. I knew that I shouldn't have done it but the firm was at the point where we needed that publicity of sorts. We needed responses to the Holiday party. We wouldn't have been able to survive against Lockhart Gardner's holiday party on the same night, especially when they can afford to throw money around like it's nothing. I keep thinking, but none of this sounds right for a response. Yes, these thoughts justify why I did it, but it's not what she wants to hear and I know that.

"There's a chance that Peter will be under investigation." Her voice is so quiet that I think I have missed what she said. She is looking around the bar, it's a new place that I thought we could meet at, one that neither of us have been to before. She looks back at me expectantly, but I'm starting to think that I really did miss what she said. "Let's go talk elsewhere, there's too many people here." I nod. We both get off the chairs, and I place some bills on the bar top and follow her out into the early evening hours.

We are walking side by side on the sidewalk in silence, I'm unsure of where we are going, but I let her lead the way. I'm trying to wrack my brain to see if I caught any of what she said. To have any insight as to the conversation we are in for when we reach a quiet place. A few blocks down, I realize that we are close to her apartment. I continue thinking to myself about the possible conversation, but I only draw up blanks. I had missed what she said. We reach her building and she's still quiet, too quiet for my liking. In the elevator I take the chance to glance over at her, her brows are knit together and she's biting her bottom lip; she thinking. She probably doesn't even know how to explain whatever it is she need to, to me. She doesn't realize that I am watching her, until the elevator dings, announcing our arrival at her floor.

Before she opens the door, she turns towards me. "My kids will be here. I need to have a conversation with them first before we can talk. I just don't want them to overhear us and become angry that I didn't tell them."

I'm confused as hell, the alcohol that I had isn't helping but I find myself nodding.

She opens the door and walks in, shouting out a hello to her kids. I take a look around, I've been here numerous times, we were working out of here for the first month of our firm start up. Nothing has changed. She drops her belonging on a chair in the foyer and calls her kids out into the living room. "Cary, you can make yourself comfortable. I don't care if you hear; you'll be hearing it soon enough anyways. There's wine in the fridge."

I watched as she didn't wait for my answer to turn around and join her kids in the living room. I stay there for a second. I catch Grace eyeing me, so I smile at her then make my way into the kitchen. Grabbing two wine glasses off the shelf, I open the fridge and grab the already opened white and replace it in the fridge after I've poured two glasses. I'm not paying attention to the conversation that she's having with her children, but I do wander in and hand her one of the wine glasses, to which she smiles her thanks.

Back in the kitchen, I slide onto the chair and pull out my phone. Now that I'm not doing anything, I can't help but overhear.

"Zach, there is a chance that you will have to testify as to what you saw in the voting center. I asked your father to make sure he does what he can to fix it so that you won't have testify again, but I don't know…"

"What does this mean? Will dad be going back to jail?"

"I don't know Grace. If he was involved in the scheme of placing this ballot box in that precinct, then it is election fraud which holds 2-5 years in prison. I wanted the two of you to hear it from me before it gets out. I have to talk with Cary about this and I can't do it anywhere public."

I hear movement around the living room, but I just sit there, checking email on my phone and sipping some wine.

"How much did you hear?"

I glance up. "Not too much, 2-5 years in prison for election fraud." I give a slight smirk; now knowing where this conversation was going.

She stands in front of the open fridge. I'm assuming she's looking for something to eat. "Frozen pizza or pasta and sauce."

I shrug, knowing that she is stalling, trying to work up the words to explain the situation. "Either work for me."

She grabs two boxes from the freezer, placing them on the cook top before preheating the oven.

"Marilyn, Peter's ethics advisor, called me in today asking if I had any knowledge of a video of a campaign worker placing a rigged ballot box into a voting center. A ballot box that Diane, Will and I worked to be disallowed in the poll count."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. When I was working for Peter in the State's Attorney office, he was running a clean office—although he didn't want to fire me or accept my resignation when he heard that I had a relationship with another ASA. "Why were you arguing to disallow the ballot box?"

"Zach noticed that the ballot box was overstuffed and the first few seemed to have been stuffed with ballots for Kresteva. Low and behold, we find out that there were around 26,000 votes in there for Peter and under 3,000 for Kresteva. That's when we started fighting for it to be allowed."

"And it looks bad that Peter's son is the one that found it and you are one of the lawyers." I finally made the link. This could hurt us.

"This is why I was asking the question about how we became dysfunctional. I didn't want to rely on Peter's professional support for the firm in case something like this were to occur."

My mind is at it again, running through the problem, trying to assess the damage it could cause us. "Did he know about the box?" I watched as she leaned against the counter and shrugged. My mind started again, thinking of a way to possibly figure out how damaging this could be to us if an investigation does commence. "Did Will and Diane discover anything about a video that night?"

She froze. She wasn't even breathing. Though I could tell that she was thinking. She started biting her bottom lip again. "Not to my knowledge but they did have Kalinda working on it."

We were silent. Neither of us wanted to say anything. Alicia stood there leaning against the counter, still biting her lip until there her phone started to buzz on the counter. Her eyes flickered to it. She pushed off the counter and went to answer it. I was sitting there with my phone in front of me wondering if I would be able to get Kalinda to talk about the video. I opened up the text thread that consisted of several texts from her, many of which I didn't respond to. _Come over to Alicia's. Bring tequila, we'll need it._ I stared at the text, unsure whether to send it. I can hear Alicia speaking on the phone; it sounded as though she was trying hard to stay calm. My finger hovers over the send button. I don't want her to know what this is about before coming over, in case she gives a tip to Will or Diane.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: There is the next chapter! Thank you for all the reviews, it is nice to hear from the readers. This chapter is from Alicia's POV. This is going to be a multi-chapter story (because I felt the need to start another based off of what could potentially happen with this ballot box scandal). Things will be unraveling slowly and pick up pace as the story continues... so stick with me :) Happy Reading!**

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_Alicia_

I'm pacing in the foyer. Peter is being the usual politician; trying to say something without actually saying anything. "Peter, all I want to know is if it is taken care of?" my frustration can be heard like a laser pointing at someone's forehead. I hear him sigh on the other side of the phone. That's not good; that's never a good sign.

_"Marilyn wrote that her inquest was inconclusive. She's handing it over to the Feds."_

I want to pull out my hair and scream. But I don't. I take in a deep breath. "Why did she find it inconclusive?" My mouth just decides to start spewing out words. I can hear him shuffling papers around his desk, and mumbling trying to evade the question. "Peter. What's going on?" Silence. All I hear is silence. I check the phone to make sure it is still connected. When I see the meter still ticking away, I put it back to my ear. "Peter."

_"I will fix this Alicia. I will."_ Then silence.

I let out an aggravated sigh. I turn on my heels and walk back into the kitchen. I head straight for the pizza boxes, ripping them open and placing the pizzas in the oven. I can feel Cary's eyes following my movements. He is probably wondering what the conversation on the phone was about. Honestly, I am trying to figure it out myself. Inconclusive. Opening a Federal Investigation now.

"Mom?" Zach's voice is loud compared to the silence that enveloped Cary and I in the kitchen.

"Yes, Zach?" I turned to look at him, he looked nervous.

"If this goes to a federal investigation, could I be in trouble for bringing attention to the ballot box?" His voice was very tight, confusion seeping through towards the end.

"No, Zach. You were doing your due diligence bringing the box to the courts attention. If it was placed there by the campaign then the individuals involved will be in trouble."

"What about colleges? Could this impact my acceptance?"

Ah. He's concerned about being rejected by name if this latest "scandal" gets out. "I don't think it will, but I honestly don't know." I watch as he nods, and I can't help but feel guilty that he's going through this turmoil because of his father's job. Maybe the campaign and the politics are too much for my kids to handle.

"Peter didn't fix it, did he?" I hear Cary ask, my back is to him. I tap my foot trying to think of a way to deal with this. I'm drawing blanks. I don't know what the repercussions would be against my firm if this gets out. As far as I know right now is that it is contained by Eli and Marilyn. I haven't seen anything on the news yet. News!

"Have you seen anything on the news about this?" I turn quickly, questioning Cary. When he shakes his head, I rush into the living room to turn on the TV. The news would be all over this if it was out. So Eli had to have been tipped off about this video. This is keeping everyone's attention preoccupied.

"What are you thinking?"

"I haven't seen anything on the news about it. Which means it is being handled in house and that someone had to have tipped them off to the video. But why tip them off? Why not just release it?" I rushed out, hoping that he was following my logic.

"So you think what…." Cary's voice fades off

"Why not release it to the public? That will make everyone scramble. Right now, only the Governor and his staff are scrambling. But what if they want only them to be scrambling?" I continued. My mind racing a hundred miles a minute.

"Like to keep them distracted?"

I grab my phone, clicking speed dial. I feel as though I am so close to completing the puzzle. "Robyn, can you come to my apartment? I need you to investigate something… okay, see you in 20." I fall back on to the couch with Cary staring at me. He looks like he is about to say something when the timer goes off before he can get it out. I sigh and push myself off the couch. "Kids, the pizza is ready."

Ten minutes later, the kids, Cary and I are sitting around the table eating. The kids and Cary are carrying on a conversation, while I have wandered back to my thoughts. What if I'm on the right track and this play to keep them distracted? Distracted from what? What pawn could the media be trying to move? My thoughts are interrupted when there's a knock at the door. "I'll get it." I say automatically, not even glancing around the table.

As I open the door, I am floored by the two people standing there. "Well, I know I called one of you here…" I started.

"Cary asked me to come." She gives a small smile.

"Come on in. There's pizza in the kitchen." I shut the door after they enter, leaning against it; closing my eyes and just breathing. I hear Cary's footstep stop at the entryway of the foyer. Without opening my eyes, I question his presence.

"I invited Kalinda here to see if she has any knowledge of the video. Maybe see if we can figure out how knows of it and who leaked it to whomever. And because she's a woman, that way you two can do that girl-talk stuff."

I nod. "Let's fill them in. See what we can figure out."

Thirty minutes later, my kids are in their rooms and Robyn has started on a hunt to see if there is any potential release against Peter in the coming days. The three of us are sitting around the table, quietly glancing at each other for a few seconds before dropping our gaze. We all have shot glasses and limes in front of us. I only told Robyn the absolute minimum amount of information she needed to know in order to search for other possible scandalous information.

I glance over as Cary lets out a cough after taking a shot of tequila. "How do you two drink this?" he says with a cracked smile. Kalinda and I both shrug at the same time. I reach forward and throw back my shot, letting the cool liquid slide down my throat with a slight sting.

"If it's too uncomfortable, I can leave."

"There's more than what we told Robyn." Cary started, looking at me expectantly to fill her in.

I'm nervous. I don't want to share what I'm thinking, partly because I know how good Kalinda is at her job so there is a high probability that she had found and viewed that video that I was shown earlier today. I fidget with my shot glass, wondering if Kalinda had told anyone else about the video. I suddenly reach across the table for the bottle, pouring myself a shot.

"Kalinda, we need to know if you know about a video concerning the governor's campaign." Cary asked as I sat there, listening. I was watching Kalinda. It is not often that she ever gives hints whether or not she knows certain tidbits, but I see something, in her eyes. I'm unsure about what it pertains to, but there is something there.

"You'll have to be more specific Cary."

She somehow manages to be completely detached, almost all the time. I wonder if I could ever perfect that. I tried, immediately after the scandal, but that failed in the months following. I just grew thicker skin.

"About election night. Will, Diane and Alicia were in court trying to disallow a ballot box in polling numbers."

She tilted her head to the side. What does that mean?

"Why are you asking me?"

I continue to stare at her. She hasn't glanced my way since the questioning started. "Diane and Will wouldn't want to touch this with a 9 foot pole." I answer. "They were fighting for Peter at the time, therefore his legal representation. I am not aware of everything that was discussed because I wasn't present the entire time, I was with my son. Please, do you know anything about it Kalinda?" I know I am asking a lot of her. We haven't been on great terms, or any terms since I left Lockhart/Gardner. But she wouldn't be here if she hated us. Cary was the one to ask her to come, but the real reason was for me, ultimately.

"My loyalties lie with Will." She stands up to make her way to the foyer.

I exhale as I watch Cary following her. I reach for my phone that rested on the table. Flickering through my contacts, I pull up a new window to text Eli. _Could the threat of this ballot box video being leaked be distracting the administration from another issue; another issue that could be more scandalous? _I click send without thinking twice. Then pull up another window, one for Will. I stare at the blank screen wondering how to go about phrasing this. _Would I be privy to attorney/client privilege from the election ballot box since I was a lawyer on the case?_ I type, my finger hesitating over the send button. Do I send it and risk causing myself added troubles? Before I can think further, I feel myself pressing the button.


End file.
